Now that the schools have reopened and the children are back to commuting to school I have been observing the quality of their daily commute and I really do not like what I see.
Supreme Court guidelines
• ‘School Bus' must be prominently written/displayed on the front and back of every vehicle carrying school children
• If the vehicle is a hired bus, ‘On school duty' should be prominently displayed
• No bus belonging to an educational institution should carry children in excess of its permitted seating capacity
• School bus must have a first aid box
• Windows of the school bus must be fitted with horizontal grills/bars
• Every school bus needs to be equipped with fire extinguisher
• Every driver of a school bus must have a minimum of five years of experience in driving heavy vehicles and must not have any previous record of traffic offences
• In addition to driver, there must be a qualified person in every school bus as provided in Rule 17 of Motor Vehicles Rules
• There should be an escort from the school, preferably a teacher, in the bus to ensure safety
How many parents / schools are even aware of these guidelines? How responsible are the drivers of these school buses? Do they realize that they are transporting innocent children and that their wards' safety is in their hands during the commute? These pictures shot on 18th June 2012 morning at Kundalahalli Gate, Near Apollo Clinic on Varthur Road, Bangalore speak for themselves.
All these school buses are jumping the median in an effort to shorten the commute. I can only hope they do not end up shortening the lives of these children.
The question is- do these drivers even realize that they are putting the lives of these children in danger by jumping the median as seen in the picture? An even bigger question that begs being addressed is “Do the parents even think about this?”
The problem stems from the fact that we are resilient to pretty much everything. I request each parent reading this to ask themselves these questions:
Who decides where the family lives? – Parents.
Who decides which school the child will go to? – Parents.
Who decides how the child will commute? – Parents.
Who is to blame if something goes wrong - Police and School Management?
Something doesn't sound quite right, does it?
Just look at these Autos carrying children packed like sardines. How can parents on the one hand claim to love their children and on the other expose them to such dangers twice a day?
While it might be true that due to various limitations based on lifestyle of the parents, it may not always be possible for the parents to take ownership of accompanying the child to the school on a daily basis, I do not believe there is any valid reason for the parents not putting their foot down and refusing to utilize the services of such irresponsible transport options. After all, these transport options exist, only because the parents utilize them.
What do we do if we find a strand of hair in the dish we ordered in a restaurant? Don't we demand a replacement / refund? We do that because we are paying for it, right? Why can we not make similar demands here? Isn’t the safety of our children more important than a strand of hair in a dish? Why do parents allow themselves to be taken for a ride, literally?
The longterm damage from this practise, is that these children grow up believing it is OK to disobey traffic and road rules.
Change has to come from within. I hope parents wake up and do something. I am sure we do not want more incidents like what happened with Abhilash, a 13-year-old schoolboy, who was killed when his school bus rammed a tree and rolled on its side down the road near Attibele on Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border in December 2010 or with B Kishore Kumar, student of a government school, who was killed when a vehicle mowed him down on Hosur Road when he was returning home from school on January 28, 2011.
Let us stop thinking “It will not happen to us” and start thinking “We will not allow anything like this to happen to our Children”
Requesting fellow Team-BHPian's to pour in their thoughts / ideas to eliminate this practise and make it safer for the children. Please also post how your children commute. That could give other ideas for a safer school commute.
Thanks,
Rajan